


Stress Management

by BeccaAnne814



Series: Bucky Barnes x Reader Oneshots [16]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Probably a curse word or two, Sadness, mentions of past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:38:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22158481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeccaAnne814/pseuds/BeccaAnne814
Summary: You and the rest of the team try to help Bucky cope with his past traumas, and he seems to be receptive to all of your ideas.  But along the way, he figures out something none of you have yet to admit to yourselves.
Relationships: Bucky Barnes x Reader
Series: Bucky Barnes x Reader Oneshots [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/772437
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Stress Management

**Bucky Barnes x Reader**

**Summary** – You and the rest of the team try to help Bucky cope with his past traumas, and he seems to be receptive to all of your ideas. But along the way, he figures out something none of you have yet to admit to yourselves.

**Warnings** – Sadness, Mentions of past trauma, Fluff…probably a curse word or two

**Word Count** – 1.1K

**Notes:** At the end.

_ ** [Masterlist](https://beccaanne814.tumblr.com/post/174989754188/masterlist) ** _

[[MORE]]

Since he'd been back, everyone had offered up suggestions for him to try to deal with the trauma of his past. Except no one actually came right out and said "PTSD" in his presence. They always skirted the issue—too afraid to put a name to what he was dealing with in case that somehow made it worse for him to bear. Instead, they phrased it like their idea was simply something new that people in this century did these days, and he should probably think about keeping up with the times.

Steve had suggested self-help books. He'd always been such a such a nerd, and thankfully the serum hadn't changed that part of his best friend. Bucky knew he didn't have any room to talk—he was just as much of a nerd as Steve was, but at least he'd had the charming, skirt-chasing persona to help cover up how much he loved science and outer space.

Bucky hadn't been all-together sure about what self-help books were until he'd gone to the bookstore. Surprisingly enough, there was an entire section of the shop devoted to that genre of books. Looking helpless, he'd drawn the attention of a young lady who'd come over to help him find what he'd needed. He'd known Steve wanted him to read up on dealing with past traumas and PTSD, so those were the ones he'd chosen. After he'd read through some of them though, he'd had to admit there were really quite helpful.

Sam—in one of his rare moments of civility—had suggested some of the group therapy sessions at the VA. Bucky had been reluctant to go at first, but once Steve had gotten wind of Sam's idea, he'd decided it was something the three of them could do together. The first couple of sessions, Bucky had sat in stoic silence as the rest of the group shared their traumatic stories. Each one was just as horrible as the next, but Bucky knew that none of them could possible compare to what he'd been through. But comparing stories wasn't what therapy was all about. It was supposed to be a time where people come together and share their inner most thought and feelings and by hearing that they weren't alone, could somehow find a sense of peace about what they'd been through.

It had taken almost a month before Bucky had spoken. He'd been worried that the rest of the group would judge him for the horrendous deeds he'd carried out for HYDRA, but instead, he'd seen tears in the eyes of some of them, and looks of pity and sorrow in the others. It was then that he realized what he should've known all along—they knew exactly who he was and what he'd done, but they'd just been patiently waiting for him to feel comfortable enough to share it with them. Getting it all off of his chest was like removing a weight he hadn't been aware was slowly suffocating him. Knowing that these people, who'd been though so much themselves, could relate to his pain, helped more than he'd ever thought—although he never wanted to admit that to Sam.

Natasha's suggestion had been to work it all out in the training room. She was like a machine when it came to keeping her skill set as honed as possible. Haunted by her own demons, Natasha found that intense physical exertion was the key to purging all the negativity from her life and had encouraged him to try it with her.

Being back in a training room had brought back a flood of memories from the when he'd first trained her in the Red Room. At first, he'd thought her suggestion would be counter-productive since there were so many bad experiences from their time together all those years ago, but he'd been wrong. She'd learned a few more tricks since they'd parted ways, and he found the challenge of trying to best her on a daily basis more therapeutic than he'd originally imagined.

YN had gone with the zen route and had somehow talked him into doing yoga with her. He may have been a brainwashed assassin during the decade of the hippies, but even he knew enough about the world to be a bit biased toward yoga. But yet again, he'd been wrong.

While Nat tried to sweat out his past trauma, YN had stressed the fact that he needed to find his center and learn to breath through the stresses of daily life. He'd thought he was fairly fit, but some of the poses she pushed him into had him struggling to stay balanced. It wasn't until he got out of his own head and focused on his breathing that he finally found his center and was able to keep up with her. And now whenever he was plagued by one of his nightmares, he'd go through a sequence YN had taught him to calm his mind and help him relax so he could go back to sleep.

All of the suggestions that had been offered up to him were wonderful in their own way, but it wasn't what had finally gotten him over the initial hump of self-loathing and guilt. What had really helped him see his own worth was the fact that he had so many people in his life that cared enough to try to help him. His family was long gone, and Steve was all that remained of his life before HYDRA, but somehow he'd been lucky enough to stumble upon a group that accepted him for who he was—and what he'd done—and only wanted to see him find a sense of peace. He'd spent some time trying to figure out why it mattered so much to them, but then he'd finally figured it out—they needed him to find peace because they desperately needed to find it themselves.

______________

Author's Note: Thank you for reading Day 142 of my writing challenge! I hope you enjoyed it! What did you think of think of everyone's suggestions for Bucky? What about his final observation? Working through problems and finding peace can be so difficult for people, and just because something works for one person doesn't mean it will work for you. But it's important to always keep looking for that one thing—or couple of things—that help you through the worst times in your life. I look forward to your comments and if you enjoyed this story, please consider reblogging!


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